Call to action to #SavetheNEA, #SavetheNEH, #SavetheIMLS
Dear Mint Museum supporter:
President Trump’s newly proposed budget – released Thursday – cuts all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute for Museum & Library Services (IMLS), among other agencies and programs. These cuts would have serious negative implications for The Mint Museum, its annual operating budget, and the arts community at large.
Please join our effort to be heard by contacting your elected officials or engaging your networks or social media circles to give them factual context about the Mint and the value we provide the community. You can click here for a link to take action, and use #SavetheNEA, #SavetheNEH, and #SavetheIMLS on social media.
We have also provided some Questions & Answers below for you to use when talking to others. The arts matter – let’s do our part to help fight these proposed cuts. Thank you for all you do to make the Mint accessible, relevant, and vital to the global community we work to serve with excellence and passion every day.
Q. Does the Mint receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, or the Institute for Museum & Library Services?
A. In recent years these three agencies have provided the Mint nearly $300,000 in critical funding.
Q. Which Mint programs have been supported by funding from the NEA, NEH, or IMLS?
A. In addition to general operating support provided by the North Carolina Arts Council each year, NEA grants have assisted Sunday Fun Days; digitization of our collections; and our teen program NexGen Mint (with some funding also supporting summer camp scholarships this year). NEH funds have supported preservation assistance for our collections, and the IMLS supported community outreach during the centennial of Romare Bearden’s birth. Additionally, the NEA and IMLS have supported Mint Museum Uptown’s Lewis Family Gallery and Art Packs and ArtVenture scavenger hunts distributed to thousands of families.
Q. What would the Mint do if these agencies were eliminated?
A. There are many unanswered questions, including whether or not our annual NCAC operating support will be reduced or eliminated. While the consistent annual support the Mint receives from federal sources is not a large portion of our operations, we would need to replace this funding in order to maintain our commitment to serving our community.
Q. What can supporters of the Mint do to help?
A. Please share this nformation with your own networks. You can also contact your elected officials and ask them to support these or other sources of arts funding. And, most of all, you can continue to be ambassadors of the Mint to our community, sharing news about the exceptional art and programming the Mint provides, and advocating for the museum as a powerful force for tourism, economic development, education, engagement, and inspiration to the community at large.
Below is additional information from the Association of Art Museum Directors:
Reach of the NEA:
*No other arts funder-public or private-sends funds to every congressional district in every state and to all the U.S. territories.
*The NEA and NEH don’t tell states what to do with the funds they receive. The states set their own priorities.
*The NEA and NEH’s investment in state and regional arts organizations helps to bolster a strong arts and culture ecosystem in United States.
*The loss of the NEA / NEH / IMLS would have the greatest impact on rural areas, low-income areas, and schoolchildren, seniors, and veterans.
Economic Factors:
*Taxpayer investment in the NEA and NEH is minimal, just 94 cents per capita, less than the cost of one cup of coffee each year; but,
*The NEA has a huge impact for that minimal investment. On average, each dollar awarded by the NEA to an arts organization enables that organization to leverage nine dollars from other sources.
*This makes the NEA an economic driver, generating more than $600 million annually in these matching funds.
Thank you again for your support of the Mint and for assisting us in this call to action.
Sincerely,
Kathleen V. Jameson, Ph.D.
President & CEO, The Mint Museum